We work closely with the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department of Energy and Climate Change) – notably on energy use in housing – and with the Devolved Assemblies, and also with local authorities and government agencies charged with implementing low carbon policies. We have worked for building owners and clients as well as designers, developers and construction firms.

We have carried out research and development work supporting innovation projects, including a novel way to improve boiler efficiency in homes and non-domestic buildings, and examining new ways of insulating walls more effectively. We have also undertaken physical measurements, and combined this with complex modelling to answer difficult questions about how to reduce heat loss from buildings in a timeframe consistent with our ambitious national commitments to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment.

Our work encompasses not only energy efficiency and low carbon design (so-called ‘mitigation’ of climate change), but also questions linked to reducing the risks from a changing climate (known as ‘adaptation’). For example, ‘how can we cut the possible 5,800 extra premature deaths from hot summers in the UK by the 2050s?’ or ‘how can we contain a possible ten-fold increase in the cost of damage to property from flooding?’.